G-A-U-C-I-M-O (8/20/2012)

Hola familia y amigos!

Hey, so Mom i have the answers to your questions...

1)      When we flew down, we stayed the night with the Assistants to the President in their house. If Jessica Babcock is reading this, I talked to Elder Thorsen about you haha, and Hermana Wilkinson´s cooks fed us.

2)      Our branch is tiny haha, maybe 50 members on a good day. The people are super nice, and this big black lady, Marcia is so sweet and loves to talk to me about California because she has family there. (P.S. lots of blacks here in Costa Rica, because a lot of Jamaicans immigrated over to build railroads...) Our branch is super nice, but there hasn´t been a baptism in Guacimo for 4 almost 5 months... so our Branch President doesn´t believe we are working very hard. It´s sad because we are working our bottoms off and we should be having a lot of baptisms this next month...

3)      I´ll give Elder Nape a pat on the back haha

4)      I can open up attachments!!!!!

Okay...so this Saturday we´ll be having our first baptism! A middle aged fellow named Enrique. He´s a real good man who wants to change his life, only thing is he got shot in the face when he was younger so his brain works a little slower. So, we had to have him go through a ton of interviews to make sure he understands what he is doing.

Because of this, the assistants came to Gaucimo, and I went on splits with a Zone Leader, Elder Statham. He´s got 3 weeks left on the mission and he is a great missionary, so I was really grateful for the opportunity to learn from him. He taught me a lot about what we need to do as missionaries and about our purpose, so it was rad.

Oh this week we also brought 8 investigators to Sacrament! BOOM! Thats a bunch for our zone. Oh P.S. so our zone is Zona Atlantica, and it’s basically the North-East coast of Costa Rica, and it is the hottest zone in Costa Rica... Anyways so we had a family of 5 come to church with us! They committed to baptism the 8th of September, and they really enjoy the church. We also brought Enrique, his son Manuel ( Manuel has a date for the 1st of September) and Edit. Edit is an 18 year old investigator who is really interested in the church, and really wants to be baptized.

Okay so interesting story pops (Dad) I was reading a lot about Alma 40-42 last night haha. And I never really understood it until last night. He really simply lays out the plan of salvation and what happens after we die. It really makes us want to live obediently to the laws and commandments of God so that we can have a place in the mansions of our Father. I love the Book of Mormon!!!!

Oh, another sweet story, so we have this family, Christian and Yoanna, and they are a little different, pretty much like every family here in Costa Rica. But anyways they have a problem with smoking, and drinking so Elder Nape and I wanted to teach the Word of Wisdom. Anyway, we would go over and something would happen so we couldn´t teach them that night, and this happened for 2 weeks. Well, a couple nights ago we were in their house, and what do we see? Drugs haha, turns out Christian has been dealing drugs. This is because he has no job and they have 7 kids they have to provide for. I know it’s not right but he has to provide for them. Anyway, we talked with the assistants and we feel that it’s a blessing that we haven’t been able to teach them the Word of Wisdom. This is, because for some reason if we had taught them without the knowledge of their situation, something bad may have happened. God works in mysterious ways, and this is one of them. He have faith that their lives can be better through the gospel, now they just need the same faith. It was just cool to know that we are being guided by the Spirit in every step of our mission. As long as we are living worthy, and keeping our covenants the Spirit is with us and guiding us.

So some funny things happened this week. I was contacting this lady and I forget to ask her name at the start so I said "¿Con quien tengo le gusto?"... In English that means, "¿With whom do I pleasure you?"... and Elder Nape starting dying and me too, I felt bad but I´m a gringo and I don´t know Spanish yet haha. I meant to say "?Con quien tengo el gusto?" Which is, "With whom do I have the pleasure" haha Spanish is a silly language.

Oh also I want to send a picture of a fruit I ate. Manzana de Agua, totally gross tasting, but it looks like a certain fruit from a video. Email me what you think it is haha, because it looks exactly like this kind of fruit.

Well I hope Deanna is doing well, and the same with Aunt Suzanne. Let them know they are always in my prayers, and that I know these trials will only strengthen them. Ether 12:27 " We are given weaknesses to become strong" This is never more applicable than in my mission. I am humbled every day, from learning this language, to being turned away and told that my beliefs are of the devil, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I know that there is at least one person here in Costa Rica that needs me, and I want to be able to find them and change their life. This church is true. The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect and is the only way to find everlasting happiness and rest. Les amo mucho familia y amigos. You are all in my prayers, and I just want you to know how much this gospel means to me. Jesus Christ lives, he is my Savior, my Redeemer, and everything in this life. Only through him can we live with our Father in Heaven once again. Love you all! Until next time!

Love,

Elder Taylor

Photos:

The fruit haha

 Hermana Mayella our cook, it was mothers day here in Costa Rica. ( I dont know why in august... Costa rica does things a little different.)

This is a picture from the MTC. This is Bryan Wood, he was my friend in Granite Bay. I don´t know if you know the woods or remeber them or not, but hes headed to Chile, Concepcion. 

Okay bye, love you all!